Verice Bennett, left, and Hunter Lipscomb welcome veteran Oscar L. Russell to the World War II Memorial during a visit organized by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight in Washington, D.C.

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They fought a war and flew in at dawn from Mississippi, so a few barricades provoked little more than shrugs from the 91 World War II veterans who crossed political lines Tuesday to walk and wheel around their memorial on the historic National Mall in Washington.

The vets in three buses pulled up to the Memorial at 11:20 am and were greeted by a group of congressmen who said they were determined to ensure the vets from the Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight would have the full experience of the monument.

With the vets in their red shirts and medal-bedecked caps lined up at the barricades, the ...